Search smh:

Search in:

Parents of 'orphan' found

PORT-AU-PRINCE: DNA tests have allowed a judge in Miami to reunite a baby rescued from the rubble of the earthquake in Haiti with her parents.

Aid workers, meanwhile, say the 33 children illegally taken by US missionaries in the aftermath of the quake have been reunited with their families.

The baby was two months old when she was pulled alive from the ruins in Port-au-Prince, four days after the quake in which 220,000 people died.

An American rescue team believed baby Jenny was an orphan and flew her to the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami for treatment. She was dubbed ''the miracle baby'' after surviving for so long without milk or water.

Advertisement

DNA tests proved she was the daughter of Nadine Devilme and Junior Alexis, who lost everything in the earthquake on January 12. They have been living in an open-air camp in Port-au-Prince. They will travel to Miami to be reunited with their daughter as soon as travel documents can be arranged.

A group called SOS Children's Villages, which has been caring for the children taken by the Baptists from New Life Children's Refuge, has released a statement saying all 33 children have parents.

Laura Silsby and nine other Baptists from Idaho were arrested on January 29 as they tried to take the children into the neighbouring Dominican Republic. They denied wrongdoing, saying they were only trying to help orphans.

Nine of the accused have since been released and returned to the US. Ms Silsby, the leader, remains in a Port-au-Prince jail facing charges of child trafficking.

An SOS Children Villages spokeswoman said many parents had been visiting the children for weeks. The smallest was only a few months old when the drama began seven weeks ago.